1972 British League Division Two season
LeagueBritish League Division Two
ChampionsCrewe Kings
No. of competitors17
Knockout CupCrewe Kings
IndividualPhil Crump
Highest averagePhil Crump
Division/s aboveBritish League (Div 1)

The 1972 British League Division Two season was the second tier of motorcycle speedway in Great Britain.[1][2]

Summary

The league still consisted of 17 teams with two teams leaving the league and two teams entering. The Rochdale Hornets had disbanded for good at the end of the previous season, whilst Ipswich Witches moved up to the British League. Two newly created teams Ellesmere Port Gunners and Scunthorpe Saints joined the league. The Romford Bombers promotion and team moved to the West Ham Stadium replacing the defunct West Ham Hammers at the stadium but halfway through the season, they moved again to become Barrow Happy Faces as their sponsor at the time was Duckhams Oil - its happy face logo was prominently displayed on the team's race jackets.[3]

Crewe Kings won their first title and completed the league and cup double.[4][5] Crewe were led by their Australian Phil Crump who finished top of the league averages and won the Riders' Championship. John Jackson also finished with an impressive average, as did their new signing Australian international Garry Flood. Flood would only ride the one season in speedway and would go on to win eight Australian Motocross Championships.[3][6]

Final table

Pos Team PL W D L Pts
1 Crewe Kings 32 22 1 9 45
2 Boston Barracudas 32 21 1 10 43
3 Peterborough Panthers 32 21 0 11 42
4 Rayleigh Rockets 32 17 4 11 38
5 Eastbourne Eagles 32 18 2 12 38
6 Birmingham Brummies 32 18 1 13 37
7 Workington Comets 32 18 0 14 36
8 Hull Vikings 32 16 0 16 32
9 Barrow Happy Faces 32 15 1 16 31
10 Teesside Teessiders 32 14 3 15 31
11 Bradford Northern 32 15 0 17 30
12 Sunderland Stars 32 13 2 17 28
13 Canterbury Crusaders 32 13 1 18 27
14 Berwick Bandits 32 12 3 17 27
15 Ellesmere Port Gunners 32 12 0 20 24
16 Long Eaton Rangers 32 11 2 19 24
17 Scunthorpe Saints 32 5 1 26 11

Top Five Riders (League Averages)

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Crump Australia Crewe 11.10
2 Geoff Maloney England Rayleigh 10.53
3 Richard Greer England Peterborough 9.98
4 John Harrhy England Peterborough 9.93
5 John Jackson England Crewe 9.91

British League Division Two Knockout Cup

The 1972 British League Division Two Knockout Cup (sponsored by the Speedway Express) was the fifth edition of the Knockout Cup for tier two teams. Crewe Kings were the winners of the competition.[7]

First round

Date Team one Score Team two
01/05Crewe49-29Ellesmere Port
02/05Ellesmere Port33-45Crewe

Second round

Date Team one Score Team two
05/06Crewe59-19Scunthorpe
04/06Scunthorpe19-59Crewe
04/06Sunderland55-23Workington
09/06Workington46-31Sunderland
25/06Eastbourne50-28Long Eaton
08/06Long Eaton38-40Eastbourne
04/06Boston46-32Rayleigh
17/06Rayleigh43-35Boston
09/06Peterborough52-26Barrow
13/06Barrow36-42Peterborough
07/06Bradford52-26Berwick
10/06Berwick39-38Bradford
05/06Birmingham43-35Canterbury
10/06Canterbury41-37Birmingham
08/06Teesside48-30Hull
07/06Hull40-38Teesside

Quarter-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
03/07Crewe53-25Sunderland
03/07Sunderland42-36Crewe
09/07Eastbourne45-33Boston
02/07Boston40-38Eastbourne
07/07Peterborough36-14Bradford
05/07Bradford45-33Peterborough
03/07Birmingham48-30Teesside
06/07Teesside41-37Birmingham

Semi-finals

Date Team one Score Team two
31/07Crewe47-31Eastbourne
30/07Eastbourne44-34Crewe
04/08Peterborough43-35Birmingham
14/08Birmingham42-36Peterborough

Final

First leg

Crewe Kings
John Jackson 12
Garry Flood 10
Phil Crump 9
Dave Parry 7
Dai Evans 6
Garry Moore 4
Peter Nicholas 3		51 – 27Peterborough Panthers
Roy Carter 11
Brian Clark 6
John Davis 4
John Amies 3
David Ashby 1
Ted Howgego 1
Frank Smith 1
Richard Greer R/R
[8]
British Railways Sports Ground

Second leg

Peterborough Panthers
Richard Greer 11
Roy Carter 10
Brian Clark 6
John Davis 5
Ted Howgego 4
David Ashby 3
John Amies 1		40 – 38Crewe Kings
Phil Crump 12
John Jackson 10
Garry Flood 8
Garry Moore 6
Dai Evans 2
Dave Parry 0
Peter Nicholas 0
[8]

Crewe were declared Knockout Cup Champions, winning on aggregate 89–67.

Leading final averages

Rider Nat Team C.M.A.
1 Phil Crump Australia Crewe 11.13
2 Geoff Maloney England Rayleigh 10.34
=3 Richard Greer England Peterborough 10.03
=3 John Jackson England Crewe 10.03
5 Malcolm Ballard England Eastbourne 9.94

Riders' Championship

Phil Crump won the Rider's Championship, held at Wimbledon Stadium on 14 October.[9]

Pos.RiderPtsTotal
1Australia Phil Crumpr 3 3 3 312+3
2England Arthur Price3 2 3 2 212+2
3England Bob Coles3 3 1 1 311+3
4Scotland Ross Gilbertson3 3 2 3 fex11+disq
5England Roger Mills1 2 2 3 210
6England Malcolm Ballardf 0 3 3 39
7Australia Bob Young1 1 2 29
8Scotland Doug Templeton2 1 2 2 18
9England George Major1 0 3 2 28
10England Dave Baugh2 1 ex 1 37
11England Paul Tyrer2 3 ex ex 05
12Wales Taffy Owen1 0 2 0 14
13England Dave Durham1 1 0 1 14
14England Richard Greer0 2 1 0 14
15England Russ Dent2 0 0 1 03
16England Tony Childs0 2 0 0 02
17England John Jackson (res)10
18England Ray Watkins (res)0 00
  • f=fell, r-retired, ex=excluded, ef=engine failure

Riders' final averages

Barrow

  • Bob Coles 8.61
  • Mike Sampson 8.35
  • Mike Watkin 6.75
  • Tom Owen 5.36
  • Ian Hindle 4.95
  • Chris Roynon 4.57
  • Bobby Campbell 4.36
  • Keith Evans 4.33
  • Alan Mackie 3.69

Berwick

Birmingham

  • Pete Bailey 9.57
  • Arthur Browning 9.42
  • George Major 7.87
  • Terry Shearer 7.55
  • Mick Hines 7.34
  • Malcolm Corradine 6.00
  • Mike Lanham 5.94
  • Cliff Emms 5.83
  • Archie Wilkinson 5.00
  • Mike Gardner 4.32
  • Steve Wilson 3.84

Boston

Bradford

  • Dave Baugh 8.69
  • Alan Knapkin 8.11
  • Robin Adlington 7.89
  • Colin Meredith 5.92
  • Alf Wells 5.92
  • Alan Bridget 5.82
  • Barry Meeks 4.81
  • Sid Sheldrick 4.73
  • Mick Fielding 3.88
  • Mick Fairbairn 3.54

Canterbury

Crewe

Eastbourne

Ellesmere Port

  • Paul Tyrer 8.47
  • Graham Drury 6.56
  • Colin Goad 6.42
  • Robbie Gardner 6.40
  • Cyril Francis 5.65
  • Ian Gills 5.41
  • Chris Blythe 4.50
  • Paul Callaghan 4.45
  • Geoff Pusey 1.90

Hull

  • Tony Childs 9.03
  • Dave Mills 8.59
  • Robin Amundson 7.73
  • Stan Stevens 6.76
  • Dennis Gavros 5.71
  • Bryan Loakes 5.40
  • Pete Boston 4.95
  • Clark Facey 4.54
  • Dennis Wasden 4.31
  • Colin Tucker 4.15
  • Bernie Hornby 1.82

Long Eaton

  • Geoff Bouchard 8.06
  • Roger Mills 7.95
  • Joe Hughes 6.29
  • Steve Bass 5.77
  • Chris Harrison 4.42
  • Peter Jarvis 4.05
  • Cliff Emms 3.40
  • Phil Whittaker 3.39
  • Gil Farmer 3.06
  • Ian Champion 2.67
  • Brian Woodhouse 1.56

Peterborough

  • Richard Greer 10.03
  • John Harrhy 9.93 (7 matches only)
  • John Davis 8.13
  • Roy Carter 8.12
  • Clive Noy 6.63
  • Ted Howgego 6.57
  • Alan Witt 5.09
  • Brian Clark 5.05
  • Pete Saunders 5.04
  • Frank Smith 4.67
  • John Amies 4.12
  • David Ashby 3.89

Rayleigh

  • Geoff Maloney 10.34
  • Bob Young 8.74
  • Brian Foote 8.67
  • Allan Emmett 8.21
  • Trevor Barnwell 6.22
  • Dingle Brown 6.12
  • Dave "Tiger" Beech 5.90
  • Nigel Rackett 5.12
  • Ivan Miller 5.04
  • Peter Claridge 4.38
  • Terry Stone 3.79

Scunthorpe

  • Brian Maxted 6.36
  • Terry Kelly 6.00
  • Ray Watkins 5.80
  • Phil Bass 5.78
  • Doug Underwood 5.08
  • Ian Wilson 5.00
  • Rod Haynes 4.79
  • Brian Osborn 4.07
  • Alan Bellham 3.70
  • John Bowerman 3.67
  • Peter Taylor 2.82

Sunderland

  • Jack Millen 8.69
  • Graeme Smith 8.29
  • Russ Dent 7.25
  • George Barclay 6.88
  • Dave Gatenby 5.27
  • Peter Wrathall 4.16
  • Jim Wells 3.81

Teesside

Workington

  • Taffy Owen 8.8
  • Lou Sansom 8.53
  • Malcolm MacKay 8.47
  • Mitch Graham 6.43
  • Kym Amundson 5.89
  • Steve Watson 5.13
  • Dave Kumeta 4.04
  • Darryl Stobbart 4.00
  • Lindsay Davies 3.71

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Historic league tables". Speedway Archive.
  2. ↑ Rogers, Martin (1978). The Illustrated History of Speedway. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 129. ISBN 0-904584-45-3.
  3. 1 2 "teams". wwosbackup. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  4. ↑ "BRITISH LEAGUE TABLES - BRITISH LEAGUE ERA (1965-1990)". Official British Speedway website. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
  5. ↑ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 101. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
  6. ↑ "Gary Flood - One of Australia's all-time motocross legends". Motorcross history. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "1972 British League Division Two Knockout Cup". Speedway archive.
  8. 1 2 "1972 KO cup final" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 12 September 2021.
  9. ↑ "Phil Crump wins title after run-off". Hull Daily Mail. 16 October 1972. Retrieved 16 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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